A small plane appeared to have crashed into Beijing’s tallest building on Friday, with witnesses reporting debris at the base of the skyscraper and AFP reporters seeing a hole in the upper floors of the building.
Video footage taken by a witness from a nearby building showed fire trucks spraying water on small flames at an exit near the ground at the 528-meter (1,732-foot) CITIC tower, as well as on the sidewalk.
The images also showed what appeared to be part of a small plane on the ground near the building.
Video on Chinese social media that appeared to be of the same skyscraper showed debris falling from the building. AFP could not immediately verify this clip.
AFP reporters at the scene saw a hole in the windows of one of the top floors of the skyscraper, which is located near the headquarters of public broadcaster CCTV in the east of the Chinese capital.
Police and ambulances converged on the area, with officers blocking people from taking pictures.
Police declined an AFP request for comment.
“I don’t know why the plane would fly here. It’s really quite strange,” a witness, a finance worker, told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A man working inside the CITIC building told AFP: “I saw debris on my way out. It looked like part of a plane.”
Dozens of cleaners in uniform gathered near the police cordon on Friday evening.
A woman told AFP she had been told to evacuate the building via the stairs and not to use the elevators.
“I ran dozens of floors in a hurry,” she said.
Two men who appeared to be from the building’s property management team told the cleaners to go home.
“No one can come in now,” said one of the men.
‘It shouldn’t happen’
A middle-aged woman who was looking at the building from the street said she was shocked by the incident.
“This kind of thing would not happen in Beijing. This is Beijing… It is very common abroad, but in China, it should not happen,” she told AFP.
“I was very shocked.”
A student at the scene told AFP he rushed to the building as soon as word of the crash spread to an aviation enthusiast social media group.
Images and online posts were being deleted rapidly, he added.
The CITIC tower, which has 108 floors above ground and seven below, is capable of housing 12,000 office workers.
China imposes strict restrictions on its airspace, especially around the urban area of Beijing, citing public safety for the new rules.
In April, China announced it was banning the sale of drones in Beijing and would require users to apply for a permit for all flights in the capital.
In the same month, China banned civil aviation for 40 days from a large airspace outside Shanghai without specifying the reasons, according to a notice to aviators published by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
